Affordable Housing as a Human Right: Activist Diane Yentel on the U.S. Housing Crisis, Racial Justice and Democracy

Right now, low-income renters are facing rising inflation, skyrocketing rents, limited tenant protections and a shortage of affordable units. Predictably, this is leading to an increasing number of evictions and a spike in homelessness.

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, sees housing and racial justice as inextricably linked. “We must ensure that low-income people can participate in democracy by removing the barriers to voting that make it difficult to cast a ballot.”

Half of U.S. States are Leaving Women Workers Behind

After a year that has put parents—especially women—through unimaginable strain as they’ve struggled to keep a roof over their families’ heads and care for their children, governors in 24 states now want to rip out the rug from under them by ending state participation in federal pandemic unemployment programs.

Emergency unemployment aid is doing what it is meant to do: serving as a temporary lifeline while workers search for and return to work.

Keeping Score: Calls to Investigate ICE; Climate Clock Issues Warning; RBG Still Trailblazing

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.

This week: Trump intentionally downplayed the coronavirus; the West Coast is on fire; Breonna Taylor’s family receives $12 million from settlement; Alexis Ohanian calls for expanded paternity leave; women in Paris fight back against misogyny; women make up the 22% of board seats at the biggest publicly-traded companies, an all time high; the Black Girl Freedom Fund seeks to invest $1 Billion in young Black women; the majority of Americans say that their country is racist; Black women are unemployed at 27%; women in Trump’s white house make 69 cents for every dollar a male staffer makes; and more.